Tristan O'Hara

Name: O’Hara, Tristan Edward

Gender: Male

Age: Eighteen [18]

Grade: Senior [12th]

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Fashion, Instagram, partying, theatre, and ukulele.

Appearance: At 6’0” and 138lbs, Tristan possesses a slender, albeit not especially toned, physique that he maintains through a naturally fast metabolism and small appetite. He jogs and lifts weights sporadically, but does neither with enough regularity to achieve any notable results. Attributable to his partial Māori heritage, Tristan has a tanned complexion that is relatively free of blemishes, save for light acne scarring across his high cheekbones and the stick-and-poke tattoo of a shamrock on his left knee. Tristan has not yet lost his New Zealand accent which, combined with his lisp and theatrical demeanour, makes him an easily identifiable presence in any room.

Due to a distinct widow’s peak, Tristan has a heart-shaped face that’s punctuated with large, almond-shaped deep brown eyes with hooded eyelids and long lashes; a thin, sloped nose dusted with freckles; and thick, pouty lips. His pointed ears are pierced once apiece in the lobe and are adorned with small silver hoops. Although his teeth are white and healthy thanks to dedicated dental hygiene, his bottom row is marginally crooked — enough to be noticeable, but not enough to warrant correction. Tristan’s hair is thick, black, and curly, but due to a recent desire to experiment with his appearance, he’s cropped it into an undercut with most of the length on top, bleached it, and dyed it a pale lilac. Though he usually ties his hair up in a bun or tames it with hairspray, the odd strand of hair often drifts in front of his thick, expressive eyebrows that are still their natural black. He attempts to keep clean shaven, but due to occasional laziness and the speed at which his facial hair grows, he can often be seen with the beginnings of a beard along his defined jawline. Tristan uses a light amount of make-up on a day-to-day basis, using concealer to cover his acne scarring and the odd pimple, powder to even out his complexion, and a pencil to fill in his eyebrows.

Tristan favours a more alternative style, with most of his clothing being second-hand — either through hand-me-downs or purchases at thrift stores or garage sales. He owns a wide range of tops, favouring button-down shirts and turtlenecks, and pairs them with tight pants — mostly skinny jeans or chinos. He has a modest selection of footwear, favouring sturdy leather ankle boots. In colder weather, he covers up with sweatshirts emblazoned with names of shows he's been in and well-fitted coats. He likes quirky patterns and colours, and enjoys blending fabrics like velvet, corduroy, and denim together. Tristan loves accessorising, wearing an assortment of rings, a couple of bracelets, and a light grey newsboy cap on a daily basis. He can also often be seen sporting wire-rimmed reading glasses with rounded lenses, to make up for his moderate myopic vision. In theatre rehearsals, he chooses to switch out his usual attire for singlets, joggers, and canvas sneakers.

When abducted, Tristan was wearing a sage green hooded rainjacket over a long-sleeved merlot button-down Oxford shirt, black slim-fit trousers with a floral print, and 3-eyelet black Doc Martens with brogue patterning. For accessories, he wore his usual cap, glasses, and rings, along with a brown wristwatch on his left arm and two bracelets (one silver, the other pale brown beads) on his right.

Biography: Tristan O’Hara’s familial history is a colourful one, being born the sole child of Grant O’Hara and Miriana Browne, yet with three half-siblings to his name: Jessica, Cooper, and Stephanie. Shortly after breaking up with his then-girlfriend, Joanna, Grant met the freshly divorced Miriana, whom had with her in tow the two children from her first marriage: Jessica and Cooper. The two hit it off at a local singles’ night and quickly entered a relationship; not long afterwards, Miriana discovered she was pregnant. Miriana’s pregnancy greatly accelerated her and Grant’s blossoming romance, with the two of them moving in together shortly afterwards.

Unfortunately, Miriana’s pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at the fifteen week mark, bringing strain to her and Grant’s relationship. The two ultimately decided it would be best not to pursue having another child, and to focus their efforts on raising eight-year-old Jessica and six-year-old Cooper. However, despite careful use of contraception from both parties, Miriana fell pregnant once again and she had Grant opted against a termination, carrying the pregnancy to full term. Midway through Miriana’s pregnancy, Grant received a letter from Joanna, informing him that a few years prior she’d given birth to a daughter, Stephanie, and that he was the father. The news came as an understandable shock, and after a heated discussion with both Joanna and Miriana, the three decided that it would be best if Grant didn’t take an active role in Stephanie’s life, beyond paying child support.

Not long after, Tristan was born on the 23rd of December, 1999, at Christchurch Hospital. The result of a 43 hour labour, Tristan was delivered both a month premature and as a breach birth. Despite the complicated nature of his conception and birth, Tristan’s early years proved remarkably free of dramatics. Miriana’s work as an educational advisor meant she was the dominant breadwinner of the family, leaving most of the childrearing up to Grant as he furthered his career as a freelance historian. From a young age, Tristan proved to be a veritable wellspring of energy, often taking hours to get to sleep and talking for hours on end. This proved exhausting to Grant, whom had Jessica and Cooper to tend to as well, and as such the three siblings were often left in the care of a cycle of family friends while Grant sought rest.

One of these friends worked as a lighting operator for a local theatre, and suggested that Tristan’s energetic and talkative demeanour might make him a strong fit for performing. Grant and Miriana, who’d long been looking for a way to channel Tristan’s energy, took him along to an audition, wherein he proved remarkably capable at following direction and scored his first theatrical role as The Pumpkin in Cinderella at age six. Despite having minimal stage time, Tristan was cited as being a highlight of the show; he became a member of their regular company for the remainder of his time in Christchurch, gradually gaining ever-larger roles as he got older. The constant immersion, praise, and the adrenaline rush he received when on stage all fuelled Tristan’s passion for performing and its been an unwavering passion for him ever since.

As he entered school, Tristan garnered recognition for taking easily both to academia and socialising, a contrast to his siblings, both of whom faltered with schoolwork and were much more introverted. His parents would rave about his academic prowess to friends and his future teachers, which served as a source of anxiety to young Tristan, who feared failing to reach such high expectations. Because he was able to coast by on natural ability for much of his early schooling and still achieve high results, Tristan never fully developed a strong study ethic. As the workload began to outpace him he faltered; this was a major blow to his self-esteem, as much of his early identity had been built upon being the smart one.

At the same time that Tristan faltered with schoolwork, the talkative and energetic nature that had once proven endearing slowly grew to frustrate both Tristans teachers — as he often proved disruptive in classroom settings — and his parents — although they appreciated Tristans passion for expressing himself, they frequently grew frustrated at him for derailing conversations whenever they had guests over. This eventually led to a strong scolding from Miriana, whom called him an embarrassment in the heat of the moment. Although Miriana quickly apologised, Tristan took his mothers words to heart and became notably quieter, a state of affairs made all the easier as his pronounced lisp meant he was oftentimes the recipient of mockery from his peers.

Tristan was close to his siblings growing up — Jessica took to the role of big sister like a duck to water and looked after Cooper and Tristan with great enthusiasm, while Cooper and Tristan shared a bedroom and Tristan sought to emulate his big brother in any way he could. As the three grew older, however, it became clear to Jessica and Cooper that Grant was treating Tristan with a degree of favouritism — mostly due to Tristan being the only biological child of the three — which didn’t sit well with either of them as their own father was largely absent from their lives. Although they tried not to let it affect their relationship with Tristan, it served to distance them both from Grant and Miriana, as they viewed the latter as making minimal effort to change the uneven dynamic.

Come mid-2010, Jessica and Cooper individually chose to move out of home — Jessica shifting to Australia to stay with Miriana’s brother and Cooper moving to Auckland to stay with his girlfriend’s family. Although happy his siblings were living life the way they wanted, Tristan became at a loss with the houses population reduced by two fifths, and their absence served only to exacerbate his newfound meeker personality. He entered Year Seven at the start of 2011 as a shy and anxious young boy; as he was starting at a new school, his teachers didn’t have anything to compare him to and assumed his shy nature to be his natural demeanour in a vein similar to his siblings.

Tristan’s life was flipped on its head on the 22nd of February, 2011, when a magnitude 6.3 earthquake rocked the Christchurch area, killing 185 people. The O’Haras was lucky enough not to lose anybody, nor did their rental property sustain any damage, but the psychological impact of seeing so much destruction on their front doorstep left its mark, and the family was desperate to leave the now ravaged city. Miriana’s sister, Sandra, had been distant from the family for a long time, but upon hearing of the disaster contacted them with an offer of help. She'd moved to the United States several decades past to be with her husband, Amos, a wealthy engineer, and they’d been frugal enough with their money to offer financial support to the O’Haras with minimal disruption to their own lives.

Although the choice to immigrate to America was gargantuan, Grant and Miriana mutually decided that the family needed a fresh start if they had any hope of moving on with their lives. Tristan was initially reluctant to move out of fear of the unknown, but he’d fallen out of contact with much of his friend group at primary school, who’d gone on to attend a different middle school, and he’d been yet to establish many friends in his own class. With Sandra and Amos help and what they managed to scrounge out of savings and selling their belongings, the O’Hara family moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee in August of 2011.

The months leading up to the move were a period of deep introspection and personal reflection for Tristan, who came to the conclusion he wasn’t happy with the person he was developing into. He vowed that once his family had settled into their new home he would be true to himself; having been privy to such trauma at a young age and with many of his friends losing loved ones in the process, he decided that life was too short not to be true to oneself.

One of the first steps Tristan took towards self-improvement he took was coming to terms with his sexuality. He’d developed crushes easily throughout primary school, with the recipient of his affections gender never factoring into his attraction, and had never questioned it until the onset of puberty brought sexual feelings into the mix as well. Although initially fearful about the repercussions of being open, a substantial amount of research and private discussions on online forums meant he felt it was the healthier option. He eventually concluded that he was pansexual and came out to his parents a day after the fact. Though both were raised in loosely religious households and had initial difficulty understanding the concept of pansexuality, they accepted Tristans sexuality with little fanfare. Privately, Miriana thinks Tristan is too young to really know what his sexuality is, while Grant places more emphasis on potential girlfriends when discussing his sons love life with him. Tristan is aware of his parents reservations, and as such makes minimal effort to discuss his romantic endeavours with them, often diverting their attention elsewhere should the topic ever come up. He has received some minor prejudice for his sexuality from peers and the Chattanooga community at large, but is mostly unperturbed by it.

Tristan started middle school in Chattanooga in September of 2011, and though he made a concerted effort to return to the socially active young man he’d once been, the onset of puberty proved something of an obstacle for him. His breaking voice rendered him uninclined to speak up; a growth spurt made him unsure how to hold himself; and acne meant he was hesitant to draw attention. He eventually chose to combat this by joining drama club, feeling meeting people who held a similar passion would help ease his the transition, a hunch that ultimately proved right.

It was during this time that Tristan developed his interest in fashion. His wardrobe back in New Zealand had consisted mostly of hand-me-downs from his brother, but one of Sandra’s welcoming gifts for her nephew was taking him on a small shopping spree to purchase him a wardrobe better suited for Chattanooga’s climate. Tristan finally had a chance to dictate his own style, and took to it with great enthusiasm. He enjoys how an individual’s sense of style enables them to project a certain image of themselves onto the world, and picking and choosing outfits reminds him of the games of dress-up he’d once played with his siblings. As his parents are not especially wealthy, most of Tristan’s clothing is purchased from thrift stores and budget chains. With the help of one of the girls in drama club, he learned how to sew — both by hand and with machine — and his ability to adjust and make his own clothing often makes his outfits appear more expensive than in reality.

As he continued through middle school and entered high school, Tristan slowly blossomed back into the outgoing, rambunctious young man he once was, though with more understanding of social cues and the capacity to hold his tongue when need be. He continued with drama club and also joined both fashion club and the gay-straight alliance; he was a natural fit for the former and is an outspoken member of the latter, being quite passionate about issues such as biphobia, racism, and slut-shaming within the queer community.

As socially active as he was, Tristan found himself a regular presence at parties, many of which involved alcohol. Grant and Miriana had been moderately inconsistent with their parenting in this regard — Grant fears that Tristan might be prone to the hereditary alcoholism prominent within his family and often disallows his son from attending parties if there’s a chance of drinking occurring, while Miriana thinks Tristan needs to be free to enjoy his youth and affords him a degree of leniency. As such, Tristan has approached drinking as something that can be a source of fun but has dangerous potential and always ensures he paces himself, with only a few slip-ups having occurred. Tristan enjoys alcohol’s capacity as a social lubricant and how drinking melts away many of his anxieties, and remains a regular sight in the school party scene.

Tristan became sexually active shortly into his freshman year at George Hunter, experimenting with friends of multiple genders. The thought of entering any long-term or exclusive relationship is petrifying to Tristan, as he fears getting that close to someone, though the extent to which he is sexually active means he’s garnered a reputation for promiscuity. For the most part, Tristan is able to remain on good terms with former flings; he tries to be honest and upfront about his intentions and his reputation tends to precede him, meaning most people know not to expect anything long term. He uses Grindr and Tinder regularly, and is quite knowledgeable on sexual health, often being the one people turn to with inquires they’re too embarrassed to share with others.

Acting continues to be Tristans most dominant interest, and he’s received a decent amount of praise for his talent. Although his initial experiences were mostly in the field of pantomime, as he progressed through high school he found he also excelled at musical theatre — as he’s easily able to channel the theatricality required — and Shakespearian texts — having become enamoured by the depth and intricacies they contain. His passion for these forms has led him to appear in at least one production of each every year since he was fourteen. Tristan has established a list of dream roles he wishes to check off and is making decent headway with it — currently his most desired roles are Crutchie in Newsies, Younger Brother in Ragtime, and Lumière in Beauty and the Beast.

Socially, Tristan is quite successful, as his quirky fashion sense, flirtatious nature, and personable demeanour tends to draw some attention. He’s a social butterfly, but tends to flock mainly towards other performers and LGBT+ students, and is mostly seen as a kind and generous — if not prone to moments of anxiety — friend. His approachability means that when friends come into moments of conflict with each other, he often serves as a sympathetic ear — and a desire not to choose sides and tendency to agree with many of his friends opinions at face value means quite a few people see him as being two-faced and passive. He can also be quite needy, struggling to feel comfortable in periods of isolation and relying on socialising with peers to boost his energy and motivation levels. This is attributable to him spending most of his childhood around his siblings; he’s never fully adjusted to being the only remaining child in the household.

Periods of loneliness being unavoidable, Tristan began to look towards more solitary hobbies to occupy his time when he couldn’t be with friends. At sixteen, he started strumming his mothers ukulele which shed bought on a whim and never gotten around to playing while doing spring cleaning. Having always wished to play an instrument but never possessing the funds or time to do so, he endeavoured to teach himself via online tutorials and has had modest success with it; though he’s still clearly an amateur. He likes to sing covers of musical theatre songs and modern top 40 hits; as he’s received minimal vocal training, his voice is a little rough around the edges, but his commitment and recent joining of the school choir serves to diminish this.

Tristan has a strong presence on social media, finding an easy way for him to stay in contact with his friends and family. He’s also proven quite savvy with Instagram having joined midway through sophomore year, he’s garnered a substantial following on the platform. Most of his posts consist of photographs with friends, selfies, and ukulele covers, and he enjoys the buzz and feeling of validation he gets from likes and followers. He also possesses a secondary account dedicated to his favourite television show, RuPaul’s Drag Race, which has also proven successful in its own right.

Academically, Tristan is modestly successful, if not a high achiever, having never quite returned back to his days of academic prowess. His teachers generally see him as a conscientious and articulate learner, if not one prone to talkativeness and occasional lack of focus. He excels at subjects with a more creative bent or emphasis on written word, especially Drama, English, and French. More logic based subjects, such as sciences or mathematics come less easily to him, as he often finds the formulae overwhelming and hard to distinguish between and requires sporadic tutoring to keep his grades at acceptable levels.

Tristan’s relationship with his parents has been rocky of late. Grant has recently gotten into contact with Joanna and Stephanie, ostensibly to reconnect with his estranged daughter. This has been a source of conflict between Grant and Miriana, whom feels that this course of action is indicative of Grant being unhappy with his current wife and child. Tristan feels similar to his mother, as while he’s excited about the idea of meeting a long-lost sibling, he worries that his father will prefer someone who is effectively a blank slate over a son who’s yet to live up to many of his expectations. He’s reacted to his uncomfortable home life by increasing his attendance at parties and sleeping around more; the former habit fuelled by his cousin, Sam, whom works at a local bottle store and is happy to supply Tristan with the odd bottle of wine or cider.

Tristan stays in contact with Jessica and Cooper over Facebook, having intermittent conversations with them and updating them on his life situation — though he opts not to communicate his frustration with his parents for fear of upsetting them. Their relationship is ultimately superficial; Tristan misses his brother and sister, but the three have gone on such separate life paths that he feels they now have little in common beyond their familial connection. He does have a soft spot for his niece, Lilia — Cooper’s two year old daughter with his now fiancée, and sends gifts for her whenever he can.

Tristan does, however, possess quite a close relationship with Sandra and Amos, something which cant be said for either of his parents. His father thinks that Sandra is a snob and clashes politically with Amos; his mother and her sister get along, but Miriana feels inferior to Sandra and the successes she’s had in life. As Tristan is reluctant to discuss his family situation with his friends, its often his aunt and uncle that he turns to in times of crisis, sometimes staying in their spare room if things are especially bad at home.

Tristan’s parents are encouraging him to pursue higher education, but he secretly doubts whether he’ll be able to stick out the four years college would require of him. He’d much rather strike out on his own and pursue acting as a freelance performer in New York, his ultimate dream career being that of a Tony Award-winning Broadway actor. This is another point of contention with his parents, who often vocalise their doubts that hell be able to make it in such a cutthroat industry. As such, they’ve reached an uneven middle ground — Tristan’s been accepted into NYU to study Theatre and Education, with being a secondary school teacher as his back-up option. However, he’s also secretly applied for the Julliard School and the Yale School of Drama, in the hopes that being accepted into such prestigious colleges might indicate to his parents he might have what it takes to make it as an actor after all.

Advantages: Tristan is a skilled actor and excellent at putting on a front, meaning he has the capacity to dupe or manipulate his peers. He’s flirtatious and a social butterfly and would have no trouble forming alliances, whether that be in a leadership position or not.

Disadvantages: Tristan has a reputation for being two-faced and passive in the face of conflict, meaning some might be unwilling to trust him when lives are on the line. As needy as he is, Tristan might be liable to crack in periods of isolation or form questionable alliances to avoid going it alone. He’s dependant on partying and alcohol to stave off stress and strong emotions, and might falter without access to his coping mechanism.

Designated Number: Male student No. 020

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Designated Weapon: Pugio (Roman dagger)

Conclusion: They say that every actor best enjoys an opportunity to die on screen. Well, I have some good news for you! - Matt Richards

'The above biography is as written by Sansa. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Sansa

Kills: None

Killed By: Adonis Cohen

Collected Weapons: Pugio (Roman dagger) (assigned weapon, to Adonis Cohen)

Allies: Helena Fury, Myles Roux, Adonis Cohen

Enemies: Toby Underwood

Mid-game Evaluation: 

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below are a list of threads containing Tristan, in chronological order:

The Past: V7 Pregame: V7
 * With Plenty of Money and You
 * twenty-first century romance
 * Heaven Help My Heart
 * Let Me Borrow That Top
 * Expanding Your Horizons
 * Nobody's Side
 * The History of Wrong Guys
 * Survival of the Fittest? At this time of day, in this part of the country, localised entirely within your high school?
 * Could I Leave You?
 * Rakshasa Country
 * Staring Over Wonderland Woods

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Tristan O'Hara. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Tristan's an interesting case for me because I feel like he in theory plays to a lot of Sansa's strengths as a writer while also going in a new directions in cool ways, but for some reason he never quite took off the way some of his past characters have. It took me a little to put my finger on why, but I'd say it's probably actually a function of Pregame demographics and scene staging trends. Tristan is the loud, out, pansexual guy, which in past versions might've earned him a measure of attention by itself, but V7 had the holy party boy pantheon of sexually adventurous characters hanging out which meant that suddenly Tristan was competing in a very, very crowded niche. This also interacted a bit oddly with the fact that he was an incredibly social character who was often in big groups with tons going on and also shared his closest relationships with a bunch of other characters who tended to get more focus by virtue of just having more threads. He's Ivy's other good male friend without a hint of romance stuff (but can't unseat Myles), and he even shares his romantic relationship with Nick with Beryl, down to the timing of the messy break-up. This leaves Tristan a character who's perfectly solid but unfortunately overshadowed because a bunch of other characters are playing the same notes.

I think what I really wanted from Tristan but never quite got was for him to spend a little more time delving deeply into some of his core ideas instead of casting a wider net. The dysfunctional trio dynamic, for instance, has tons of potential but is often a little unclear. Are Beryl, Nick, and Tristan all dating each other? It sounds like they are, but as it plays out, Tristan never shares page space with Beryl at all and thus Nick seems to be the linchpin. Are Beryl and Tristan still dating after they both split with Nick? I don't think so, but I'm honestly not sure. I think throwing all three onscreen together and seeing them interact, and how functional (or not) their dynamic was, would've done a lot to help lift Tristan up some and set him apart.

I spend an inordinately long time on Pregame here because I feel like in a lot of ways it laid the path for Tristan's island journey. Much as in Pregame, right off the bat Tristan is thrust into a huge thread to struggle to stand out. What's there is good, but he's not shooting anyone, getting shot, directling first aid, or being the funniest guy in the room, so he gets kind of lost in the noise. Wisely (well, on a plot level at least), he bails on the group in a well-written and under-appreciated one-shot, but his story slows down a little from there on, and by the time he links up with Myles and Adonis the game has chugged along rather soundly while he's still in relatively early-game form.

I do like his chemistry with the other two boys. It's a shame there wasn't more time to see it play out, because this is a place where Tristan sharing a lot of core themes and traits actually works to his advantage. He's in his element with conflicting loyalties and histories and goals, but then he gets rolled. His death, at least, has some really interesting fallout. Adonis gets way too pushy and unhinged, but Tristan also escalates, throwing his all into a last stand to hold off Adonis. The irony here is pretty delicious on a character level, because Adonis doesn't want to kill Tristan, certainly doesn't want to kill Myles, and actually continues travelling with Myles even afterwards. Tristan's death, then, accomplishes nothing. It's a horrible awful accident, absolutely in vain, and that's nice and tragic (and also complicates Adonis' good guy image in ways I appreciated).

Is Tristan pretty good? Yeah, he is. I think he's a character who actually probably would benefit a lot from being one of the first characters of the version a reader approaches, though, because where he struggles is that he often slowed down or didn't dig as deeply into scenes as he could've, and at the same time there were loads of other characters chomping at the bit to really dive into those same themes and ideas. He ends up a support character, not really the star of any story, and he performs this role well, though I wish he'd gotten a bit more spotlight and room to really steal the show. - MurderWeasel